Nationals

The annual Swim England National County Team Championships 2018 is once again taking place this October 7th at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre. Always a fun, colourful and competitive event, it is played out in front of a packed house in Sheffield.

It kicks off the competitive short course season for many of the swimmers taking part.

With more than 900 swimmers competing from 36 counties the County Team Championships is split into two divisions. Division 1 typically has 20 teams while Division 2 has up to 20.

The 50m national pool is specially divided into two 25m short course pools so that the event takes place for both Divisions within the one venue at the same time. There will be two heats for each event on the schedule with heats in Division 2 starting only 20 seconds after those in Division 1. This adds to the electrifying atmosphere of the fast paced event which is also fully live streamed.

Individual events are contested over three double banded age groups – 12/13 Yrs, 14/15 Yrs and 16/17 Yrs. There are 100m Freestyle, 100m Backstroke, 100m Butterfly and 100m Breaststroke events for each age group with one swimmer competing from each county.

There will also be 4x50m Medley Relays held for each age group and one Mixed 6x50m Freestyle Relay. The mixed relay consists of teams made up of one boy and one girl from each age group.

This year, 7 swimmers from Sevenoaks Swimming Club have been selected to form part of the team representing the County of Kent in Division 1. This is the highest number there has been for the club.

The following Sevenoaks SC swimmers will be racing in the following events:

Millie Childs (14) 100Back

Kara Dimond (13) 100Breast

Imogen Stoddart (13) 50Breast in Medley relay

Eva Okaro (12) 100Fly, 50Free in Medley & Free Relay.

Izabella Okaro (12) 50Fly in Medley Relay

Nathan Rodrigues (16) 100Free, 50Free in Medley & Free Relay

Louis Hayes (14) 100Fly, 100Back and 50Fly in Medley Relay.

Also selected from Sevenoaks SC this year for the SE Regional Training Camp were 12 year olds Eva Okaro, Izabella Okaro and Emily Brown.

14 year olds Louis Hayes and Jacob Hudson have been selected for the National Development Programme 2018.

Having battled through the (10 week) qualifying period, 12 members of Sevenoaks Swimming club qualified to compete at the English Summer Nationals in Sheffield last week. Once the top 24 swimmers had been identified to swim at the British Summer Nationals the week before, the next 20 qualifiers in England, per event, were invited to swim at these Championships, so qualifying for this prestigious event was an achievement in itself.

Oliver Coote, (15) Nathan Rodrigues (16) Ellis Stanhope (16) Ellie Vowell and Zoë Naylor- Perrott both 15, had qualified for this event before, whilst Isabella Okaro and Eva Okaro (both 11) Imogen Stoddart and Kara Dimond (both 13) Lilie Chambers and Zachary Raymond (both 14) and Aiden McMillan (15) were first time qualifiers. During last week, were held each morning, with the top 10 going through to the finals every evening, and the whole event was live-streamed around the World.

Day 1 saw both Oliver and Imogen compete in the 100m breaststroke, both swimming almost bear to their PB finishing in 14th and 19th place respectively. Swimming in the 50m freestyle, Nathan began the morning seeded 6th, stormed his heat in a new PB and qualifying for the final, in which he fought hard to earn another PB earning the club’s first medal finishing in 24.80 to win the bronze.

As Day 2 began, no one could have predicted the massive success which would lead acting Head Coach Jo King to conclude this to have been ‘Wicked Wednesday’. Eva, who is still only 11 (but swimming in the youngest category 12/13) swam in the heats of the 100m butterfly. She swam her heat with effortless speed to knock 3 seconds of her PB reach the final, where she reduced that time by another second win a magnificent silver medal in a remarkable time of 1.04.95. Next to swim in the 200 freestyle was Ellis, who was seeking to break the magic sub 2 minute barrier for the 1st time. He did exactly that to reach the final in which he swam another fantastic race to win the silver medal and reducing his PB again to finish in 1.58.66. All this after he had swum the 1500m freestyle between the heats and finals (finishing 8th).

Oliver was the next to compete, giving his all and holding his entry ranking to finish 14th in 2.40.15. Following on was Lilie with her debut nationals swim in the 50m freestyle. Fighting all the way, she deservedly swam a PB of 28.20 to equal her entry ranking of 12th place. Eva then returned in the same event, ranked in first, She didn’t disappoint claiming her spot in the final in the new PB of 27.28. In the final that evening, under pressure, either rose to the occasion and won the gold medal, much to the delight of the swimmers and parents who had travelled to Sheffield to support the club. The final event so Nathan back in the pool in the hundred meter butterfly. Entering the heats in 10th place he, too, produced a PB of 1.00.10 to clean his place in the final where is aim was to break than one minute barrier for the first time. Fighting all the way he did just that with a time of 59.91 and a well deserved 6th place.

Day 3 began with both Zachary and Nathan swimming the heats of the 100m freestyle. Zachary smashed his PB to finish in 57.08 and booking a place in his first National final where he finished in an identical time to take a well deserved place. Nathan, on his 3rd day of racing produced his 2nd fastest time ever of 55.13, narrowly missing a place in the finals, finishing 11th. The next event saw Zoë and Eva in the heats of the 50m backstroke, Zoë finishing close to PB to finish and Eva with a PB which took her into the final where later that evening she produced another PB and another remarkable time for her tender age of 31.40 to take the silver medal. In between the heats and finals, Eva also swam the 200IM, in 2.37.42 to finish in 19th place.

Day 4, the penultimate day, saw the debut of Aiden in the 200m butterfly. Having just missed out on qualification last year, he swam a fantastic heat swim. From entering the event as the 19th seed, he leapt into the final seeded 5th! That evening, Aiden went on to smash his PB again to finish in 2.14.27, for a throughly deserved 5th place. The next event, the 50m breaststroke saw the debut of Kara producing her 2nd fastest time ever to finish 19th. It was Imogen’s turn to swim the event, digging deep to qualify for the final where she produced her 2nd fastest time ever to finish 9th in 35.99, a great achievement in her first nationals. Last to swim in the morning heat (over 4 hours after warm up) was Zoë swimming in the 100m freestyle and in a highly competitive field improved her seeding to qualify for the final. That evening, swimming from lane 0, she produced a gutsy swim to swim 0.3 faster than the heats and take a well deserved 9th place in 1.00.54. Today was styled ‘Fantastic Friday’

The final day of the English Summer Nationals began with the heats of the 50m butterfly, in which the club had 4 swimmers. Isabella, making her debut produced a solid time of 30.85, to finish in 15th place. Ellie also produced a strong swim to finish in a time of 30.13, a courageous swim, given she was managing an injury coming into the champs to finish in 13th. Zoë, on her 3rd consecutive day, came into the event 17th with no expectation of a finals place. Swimming a strong heat, she equalled her entry time to leap into the finals in joint 8th. That evening she finishes her season with a well deserved PB taking 9th spot in 29.64. Eva’s heat swim almost equalled her entry time to take her into the final qualifying fastest. That evening, she produced another incredible final swim to produce a PB of 28.54 and another gold medal! Not only was she one of the youngest in her age group, but the time she produced was faster than the winner of the 15 and 16 yrs age groups! Winning a total of 2 golds and 2 silver medals, Eva is a an incredibly talented swimmer who produced remarkable swims under pressure.

Finally, Ellis swam in the 400m freestyle produced an excellent heat swim to produce a PB and jump from being seeded 13th to book his place in the final ranked 5th. Swimming later that evening, he produced a spellbinding performance to reduce his PB by a further 4 seconds to take a well deserved 5th place in 4.12.89.

Coaches Jo King and Paddy Ham were understandably incredibly proud of every swimmer who had fought so hard to qualify and then produce the ‘fabulous week of racing’ they did. They are excited to build on this cusses, particularly as the Club will be welcoming their new Head Coach Kieron Piper who starts in September. More exciting times ahead!

Here we are again back in Sheffield for the start of this years English National Championships.

Sevenoaks SC has an excited group of 14 qualifiers and the first one in the water is 15 year old Oliver Coote in the 100 breaststroke. His second year at nationals, he was slightly off his best time with a 1.12.38 and just outside the evening qualification. He is back in the water in the morning for his 200 breaststroke.

Racing for the first time at this level and next to swim was 13 year old Imogen Stoddart, she swam well with a 1.22.44 and was perhaps a little nervous at the level of this swimming and will be calm and ready for her main event the 50m breaststroke later in the week.

Last but not least was 16 year old Nathan Rodrigues with the 50 freestyle, he was going in with a 6th place ranking and absolutely stormed his one length with a 24.88 and 3rd place going into the final. A very well paced and planned swim! He then went on to swim even faster in the final and brought home the first medal of the whole championships with a 24.80 and 3rd place bronze. Well done Nathan.

He is swimming tomorrow in the 100 fly.

Day 2

As the day began early for SSC we none of us suspected the great successes that were to come for our fabulous swimmers later on!

The first event of the day was the 12/13 year old 100 fly and our not quite 12 year old, Eva Okaro who is 11, 12 in November was ranked in 19th place with a 1.8.14. She swam the most fantastic easy speed fly to finish in a 1.5.08, a huge pb and 1st place into the final. With an incredibly exciting swim against 13 year olds she knocked her time down to 1.04.95 and came in second place the first silver medal of the meet for SSC. A truly special swim and time for a very young and very talented swimmer.

Next in was 16 year old Ellis Stanhope with the 200 freestyle, he has been trying to break 2 minutes for sometime and showed us what he’s really made of with a fabulous 1.59.56 and taking his entry ranking from 10th to 3rd for the evening final. He went on to lower this time even further and win a super bronze medal with a 1.58.66 a remarkable swim after a very demanding 1500m race at lunchtime!

15 year old Ollie Coote had his 200 breast next and swam very well to hold his entry ranking with a 2.40.15 a good solid swim.

14 year old Lilie Chambers made her debut into National level swimming with the 50 free and was in great form with a lovely pb of 28.20 and equalled her ranking entry slot also, a very good first National swim.

Eva Okaro was then back in to swim her 50 freestyle and was ranked in first place, she performed to her ranking and swam a great pb of 27.28, putting her in first slot for the final. She went on to show her true ability with a first place win and a 27.44. A first Gold for Sevenoaks.

The last event of the morning saw 16 year old Nathan Rodrigues in the 100 fly and he was starting in 10th place which he stormed through to finish in 3rd ranking for the final with a nice pb of 1.00.10. He had a big aim to break 60 seconds, 1 minute in the final! This he achieved very nicely with a really lovely swim of 59.91 and 6th place.

As this session ended the lunchtime distance event began and Ellis Stanhope was racing in the 1500m freestyle, this is always a tricky event to race as the swimmer has to try to maintain 15 x 100 at the same fast pace. He gave a valiant effort and was just off his time, finishing in 8th place with a 17.18.71.

Gold, silver and bronze all in one day and some very exciting times - Wicked Wednesday!

The morning started off with Zach Raymond and Nathan Rodrigues in the 100m free. Zach smashed his PB, going 57.08 and qualifying for his first ever national final in the afternoon. Nathan produced his 2nd fastest time ever, producing a 55.13, narrowly missing the final in 11th place. After 2 brilliant performances over the previous 2 days, Nathan should be very proud of himself of what he has achieved.

This was followed by the girls 50m backstroke. Zoë Naylor-Perrott produced a strong swim of 32.45, narrowly off her entry time and finishing 19th. Eva Okaro continued her fine form, PBing with a time of 31.68 and going 2nd fastest into the final.

Eva continued her swims with a strong 2.37.42 in the 200 IM. It was her 3rd fastest time ever in this event by the 11 year old, finishing 19th.

The finals session started off well with Zach hitting exactly the same time as his heat, finishing 7th. A fantastic debut performance and he will comeback stronger next season, benefiting from the experience he has picked up from this years championships. Eva was up next and produced a dazzling swim to finish 2nd in the 50m back final with a new PB of 31.40. It was Eva’s 3rd medal in 2 days making her total 2 silvers and 1 gold. It was a fantastic swim and she was very pleased!

This sets up Sevenoaks for an exciting penultimate day with Aiden McMillan making his debut national swim in the 200 fly along with Kara Dimond in the 50m brs. Imogen is also competing in the 50m brs along with Zoë Naylor Perrott in the 100m free. Bring on tomorrow!

Days 4 & 5

After Wicked Wednesday and Thunderous Thursday, Sevenoaks continued the theme onto the Fantastic Friday. The day will be remembered for the breakthrough performance of Aiden McMillan. Aiden wasn’t up first in the 200 fly and delivered in style. It had been a long wait for Aiden to swim in his first ever nationals championships and he didn’t disappoint. Aiden went 2.16.08, a 2 second Pb off his entry. He also PBed at 50m and at 100m giving him 3 PB’s in 1 race. He stormed up the rankings from 19th to 5th and qualified comfortably for his first national final in the evening.

Next up was the girls 50m breaststroke. Kara Dimond produced a solid 36.79 in her debut nationals, just off her entry time but it was the 2nd fastest time she had produced in this race. Imogen Stoddart was next; producing a solid 35.79 in the heat to qualify 7th into the final.

Last in the morning was Zoë Naylor Perrott who put the disappoint of the following day behind her to produce a 1.00.85 in the 100 free heats and qualify 9th into the final, in a very competitive field.

The finals session kicked off with another breathtaking performance from Aiden. Aiden finished off his season in style with another 2 second PB of the day, smashing his time from earlier going 2.14.27. He didn’t breathe the last 10m, pacing the race superbly and finishing 5th place with his reputation greatly enhanced in English swimming. A superb debut performance and one that was thoroughly deserved.

Next up was Imogen Stoddart who performed well and produced a strong 35.99 - just off the time from the morning, finishing 9th. To even make a national final is an achievement and Imogen had a great debut nationals where she stated she was going to comeback even stronger next season!

Finally it was Zoë who produced a gutsy swim from lane 0, going faster than her heat swim in a time of 1.00.54. This is the 2nd fastest time Zoë has ever done and she was pleased to have gotten her time back down close to her PB.

The last day of the Swim England National championships did turn into a Sevenoaks version of ‘Super Saturday’.

The start of the day brought the 50 fly for the girls. Izabella Okaro, making her debut swim at nationals produced a solid 30.85, just off her entry time and narrowly missing qualifying for the final, finishing 15th in a very close field. Eva Okaro produced an excellent heat swim, going 28.80, 0.01 off her entry and qualifying fastest for the final in the evening. Ellie Vowell was next, producing a strong 30.13 and again, just missing the final finishing 13th. After managing an injury leading into this championships, it was a good performance from Ellie. Zoë Naylor Perrott was next up and went exactly her entry time of 29.90, qualifying joint 8th into the final for later.

Finally, after a long wait, it was the return of Ellis Stanhope to the pool in the 400 free and it didn’t disappoint. Ellis produced an excellent performance, PBing in the heat with the time of 4.16.52 and moving up 8 places in the rankings from 13th to 5th.

This set up the finals sessions comfortably and Sevenoaks finished off championships in style. Eva Okaro produced an incredible final swim, going 28.54 and winning her 2nd gold medal of the championships despite fiece competiton going into the final. Given that Eva is not even 12 and is competiting against girls 18/24 months older than her, Eva’s medal tally of 2 golds and 2 silvers is a stunning achievement.

Eva’s final set the tone for the rest of the finals session. Zoë was up next and finished her season off with a PB in the 50 fly, going 29.64 and finishing 9th! A lovely swim to finish off a good week.

Finally, it was the turn of Ellis and again, it didn’t disappoint. Ellis produced a spellbinding performance, knocking off nearly 4 seconds from his heat earlier in the day, going 4.12.89 and finishing 5th in an incredibly close final. Ellis’s last 50m lit up poolside as he dropped 3.5 seconds from his previous 50 to nearly sneak a bronze medal.

It was a fabulous finish to fabulous week of racing. It sets up the start of next season nicely and every swimmer should hold their heads high. All the swimmers have helped inspire the swimmers that didn’t qualify to make it their aim to get to nationals next year. The meet has galvanised the club; with sessions stopping to allow swimmers to watch and cheer on their teammates and witness the success Sevenoaks has had. This positive energy will help Sevenoaks go even further next season. Congratulations on a superb week.

The first day of the British Swimming championships 2018 saw the continued heatwave even in Sheffield!

The first swimmer for Sevenoaks SC was 14 year old Jake Hudson, in his first ever Nationals he was racing in the 100 breast, he swam a storming first 50 to finish with a 1.12.00 just off his pb. This was a very gutsy race for our swimming newcomer, his first time at Nationals, first time racing in the huge pool hall of Ponds Forge, the enormity of which is not to be underestimated. Well done Jake.

Next in the water was 20year old Amy Farthing, in her first ever individual race at Nationals. She was on fine form, going in ranked in 16th place, she swam a fabulous 1.5 sec pb of 5.11.66 and brought herself up two rankings.....a great result for this very tough event, great swim Amy.

14 year old Louis Hayes had the first of his 8 British events, 50back, he raced extremely well to bring home a nearly 1 sec pb of 28.74, pulling up his entry ranking from 8th to 5th and make it through to the evening final, superb first swim. He then swam his second ever best time of 28.87 to come home in 9th place, this in in the whole of GB. Well done Louis.

Our fourth swimmer of the day was 15 year old Maddy Glen in the 50 breast, she was going in on 22nd place ranking and with a super swim of 34.72 she brought herself up 5 places on her entry, a fantastic achievement, watch out for Maddy next in the water on Sunday with her 100 breast event.

The squad will be joined by Zoe Naylor-Perrott and Ellis Stanhope later in the week.

A great start to the champs, well done all.

Day 2

14 year old Louis Hayes in action again with the 100 back. Going in ranked in 7th place he swam a solid heat of 1.02.72 to qualify for the final in 8th place. With a superb step-up in the final he took himself up to 6th place and swam a great pb of 1.02.01 always good to swim faster in the final than the heat.

Day 3

The third day dawned as hot as ever and we had a trio of swimmers lined up in the morning heats.

Amy Farthing in the 200 fly this very hard 4 length race went well and she came in her ranking slot with a 2.31.75 she returns tomorrow for her 1500m.....

Louis Hayes in the 100 free which is the blue ribbon event and therefore very tough competition. He swam an excellent heat to just qualify for the final in 10th place, with a 56.25 and then absolutely gave his all in the final to come to his pb and up one place to 9th with a very presentable 55.92. Another super swim and he is back in the pool tomorrow with his 100 fly.

Zoe Naylor-Perrrott in the 15 year old girls 50 free swam a great event with a 27.74 just off her pb and just missing out on the final. She will be back in action at the English Nationals next week.

Day 4

The 4th day brought Jake Hudson back up to Sheffield for his 200 breast, his main event.

Jake now over his first Nationals Nerves, swam a superb 4 lengths breastroke, with a 2 second pb of 2.33.79 and hitting his targets perfectly, he qualified in 6th place for the evening final. He came back with an even more determined swim and took another 2 seconds off his time to finish with a 2.31.58 and in 7th place. A great result for a first time national swimmer.

Louis Hayes was in his 100 fly and again a very clever heat swim just off pb of 60.56 and 5th place into the final. He was superb in the final, swimming faster than in the morning and finishing in 6th place with a 60.26 bearing in mind this is the middle of a very grueling week for him, a great result.

Amy Farthing had her 1500 in the middle of the day, an unusual time for swimmers to race but she was not phased and kept her reps steady to finish in 7th place with an 18.39.99 this was her last event and a great sense of relief as she moves on to Swansea University to study sports and exercise science in the Autumn. Well done Amy and Good Luck!

Day 5

The penultimate day of Nationals and this sees Louis Hayes in the 50 free and Ellis Stanhope in the 800 free, both ends of the spectrum for SSC!

Louis probably exhausted by now was just off his pb with a 25.57 and 12th place, just missing out on the final by 0.02 and giving him a well earned rest for the evening.

16 year old Ellis Stanhope racing at that strange middle of the day time was in good form and swam a 9.03.46 to come in 15th place and lets remind ourselves that this is, as for all the swimmers, the placing in the whole of Great Britain.

Day 6

So, we have reached the last day of an amazing meet for our fabulous squad of talented swimmers.

15 year old Maddy Glen was back in Sheffield for her 100 breast and perhaps with too much pressure she was off her pb with a 1.16.92 and 19th place.

Louis Hayes in our final event the 50 fly was once again in great form, the evening of rest obviously a huge help he broke 27 for the first time and came home in 26.90 to qualify 2nd for the evening final. A great swim, surpassed only by his evening swim another pb of 26.77 and a 4th place by only 0.02 secs, a very exciting final and a fantastic swim and fantastic meet for 14 year old Louis, well done.

The 2018 British Summer Championships took place across six days from 24th-29th July where the country's top 24 swimmers in GB in each age group and event are invited to compete. The heatwave was unforgiving in the environs of Sheffield's Ponds Forge pool and with temperatures outside hitting record highs, the atmosphere inside matched the rising temperatures.

All swimmers produced outstanding swims with the most notable of the boys being Louis Hayes qualifying for 5 finals from 6 races. He finished a great 9th in 50m & 100m free, an even better 6th in 100m back & 100m fly finally in his last race he pulled out all the stops for an incredibe 4th in 50m fly, missing the bronze medal by only 0.02 seconds.. He also finished 12th in his 50m free with a new PB.

Jake Hudson, in his inaugural National meet, produced a good pb in 100m breast finishing in 16th and went on to qualify for the finals in 200m breast securing a superb 7th place.

Amy Farthing, also at her first individual Nationals, started the week off with a wonderful PB in the 400IM finishing 14th having jumped 2 places in the rankings and then went on to finish in 21st in 200m fly. Finally came the 1500m freestyle where she finished a very credible 7th.

Maddy Glen produced a strong swim in the 50m breast jumping 5 places from entry and finishing in 17th and she then went on to the 100m breast where she produced a gutsy swim to finish in 19th.

Zoe Naylor- Perrott also swam well to finish in 17th place in the 50m free.

In the 800m free, Ellis Stanhope swam himself to 3 positions better than entry and finished strong for 15th place.

Great results and super swimming by all in the sweltering heat.

This week is the turn of the Swim England's National Summer Meet also at Ponds Forge and pits the next 20 English ranked swimmers (after the British qualifiers) against each other. Where Ellis, Louis and Maddy will be joined by Ollie Coote, Imogen Stoddart, Nathan Rodrigues, Eva & Izzy Okaro, Ellie Vowell, Lilie Chambers, Zac Raymond, Aiden McMillan, Kara Dimond & Zoe Naylor-Perrott.

Huge thanks go to Jo King, Sevenoaks SC acting Head coach, for her unstinting support and invaluable advice during this first week.

Sevenoaks Swimming Club swimmer, Jaedon Lynch 12 yrs, was selected to the Jamaican National Squad for the Central American and Caribbean Championships held in Aruba over June 28th to July 4th 2018 as part of the CCCAN Games 2018.

With 37 countries competing in these games it was a huge honour and immensely exciting for Jaedon to be selected to compete at such a prestigious event.

Success was forthcoming for Jaedon in the following events:

4 X 50 Mixed Free Relay 4th Place

200 Bs Final - 6th Place

50 Bs Final 7th Place

200 Fly Final -5th Place

The icing on the cake was an incredible Silver medal in the Mens 4 X 100 Medley Relay where Jaedon swam a superb Fly leg followed by a brilliant Bronze Medal in the Mens 4 X 100 Freestyle Relay.

Huge congratulations to Jaedon for his outstanding performance in such a prestigious event. Sevenoaks Swimming club are very proud of his achievement.

Surinder Singh Manak of Manak Solicitors said 'we are delighted about Jaedon’s achievements, and very proud to be supporting him on his journey'.

Sevenoaks Swimming Club swimmer, Jaedon Lynch 12 yrs, has been selected to the Jamaican National Squad for the Central American and Caribbean Championships to be held in Aruba over June 28th to July 4th 2018as part of the CCCAN Games 2018.

With 37 countries competing in these games it is a huge honour and immensely exciting for Jaedon to be selected to compete at such an prestigious event.

Jaedon has been a member of Sevenoaks Swimming Club since 2017 and this is the second National call up for our talented youngster.

Sevenoaks Swimming Club wishes Jaedon the very best of luck during the competition and look forward to hearing of his success on his return. The whole Club is incredibly proud of his achievement.

Sevenoaks Swimming Club swimmer, Jaedon Lynch 12 yrs, has been selected to represent Jamaica in the 2018 Caribbean Swimming Championships to be held in Kingston, Jamaica over 29th March to 3rd April 2018 as part of the Carifta Games 2018. The CARIFTA Games is an annual athletics and swimming competition founded by the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA). The games were first held in 1972 and only countries associated with CARIFTA may compete in the competition. Previous competitors include superstars such as Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake.

Jaedon started swimming at the age of 5 and joined Sevenoaks from Dartford Swimming Club in March 2017. He is ranked in the top 3 for all the events he has qualified for at the Carifta’s and is in a strong position to bring home Gold medals in many events. He is currently the fastest qualifier for 100 Back, 50/100/200 Breast, 50/100/200 fly and 200 IM. Jaedon will be competing in the 11-12 year old category against swimmers from 27 Caribbean countries. He qualifies through his parents and as he holds dual nationality for Jamaica and the UK.

Last Saturday, Aquatic Sports of Jamaica (ASAJ) announced the team which includes 12 overseas-based swimmers and 15 debutants most of whom will compete in the 11-12 age group, including Jaedon.He received the invitation this week to represent Jamaica from the National Coach. ASAJ president Martin Lyn believes the 36 chosen swimmers represent the best of the current active swimmers down to compete in all events, as the selection committee had a very difficult task of narrowing the list.

A swimmer qualifies for national (international age group swimming events) selection by achieving AA time standard or higher in at least two events and must be ranked first or second place in those events.

“Jamaica has proposed one of the strongest teams that we have ever fielded for a Carifta Swimming Championships; the fact that we will be hosts allows us to name a lot of swimmers this time around …..so that is good for us,” Lyn told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

“Our younger age group indicates that we definitely have depth in Jamaican aquatics and the objective of swimming at home is to ensure that we use home court to our advantage. That, coupled with the fact that we have some strong members on the team, means we can look forward to positive results from our athletes.”

Sevenoaks Swimming Club wishes Jaedon the very best of luck during the competition and look forward to hearing of his undoubted success on his return. The whole Club is incredibly proud of his achievement.

Sevenoaks SC swimmers Zoë Naylor-Perrott (15) and Maddy Glen (14) have just returned from Edinburgh where they swam at the British Swimming Championships a meet that is the epitome of high performance swimming. Over 500 competitors travelled from all corners of the UK to swim in this prestigious event. Races took place over four days in conjunction with the Edinburgh International Swim Meet 2018.

Although tough qualification times were set, Zoë qualified to swim in the 50m backstroke, 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly. Maddy qualified for the 50, 100 and 200 metre breaststroke. This was the first time the girls had qualified to swim at the British Championships and were among the youngest competitors to compete. They were both honoured to be on the same starting line-up as many national, international and Olympic swimmers, including Adam Peaty, James Guy and Siobhan Marie O’Connor.

With the arrival of snow, Zoë was able to fly out before the airports closed on Wednesday morning and found herself in the same warm up lane as Adam Peaty and James Guy on Wednesday evening! She then competed her 3 events between Thursday and Saturday, with her times being close to her PB’s, finishing higher than her entry seeding in all events.

Maddy’s events started later in the week, but with the worsening weather, her journey to Edinburgh did not go according to plan. Her train stopped at Newcastle and despite all efforts by her desperate Dad to fly, drive or get a train up to Edinburgh, they remained in Newcastle until Saturday. Maddy missed her best ranked event (100m breaststroke) and they had decided to head back to London when their hotel offered them a shared minivan to Edinburgh. Arriving after warm up and just an hour before the 200 breaststroke, Maddy valiantly swam the event even being mentioned by the commentators for her tenacity and determination! She was then able to compete the 50m breaststroke the following day swimming again not far off her personal best.

Head coach Matt Smithurst said:

‘’It was a massive achievement for Zoë and Maddy at their young age to qualify for so many events at the British championships. With the significant challenges brought by the weather, I am really proud of how both girls handled the pressure and how well they raced. This experience will be invaluable in the years to come’’